


A Most Curious Sense Of Freedom

by Cephy



Category: Last Remnant
Genre: M/M, New Game Plus Challenge, Video Game Mechanics
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-03-23
Updated: 2010-03-23
Packaged: 2017-10-10 16:46:05
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,564
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/101917
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Cephy/pseuds/Cephy
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Just another day.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Most Curious Sense Of Freedom

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the DW challenge community newgameplus. Set after Disc 1.

David heard a footstep behind him a bare moment before there was a hand resting in the small of his back and a body curving around his from the side. He turned his head to find a familiar smile aimed back at him. "Hey," Rush greeted, "Me and Emmy are going to take Irina up to the Peaks. She wants to see that Liafort thing. Want to come?"

"Is that wise?" David replied slowly-- not because he particularly wanted to say no, but because someone had to play the voice of reason. Rush was fearless, his sister wasn't any better, and Emmy was proving just as idealistic and willful as her mother had ever been.

"Irina's really taking to Emmy's lessons. We'll be fine," Rush said easily. "Besides, it's been real quiet up there lately."

"Quiet," David echoed dryly, "You realize that _quiet_ typically only means that you haven't been looking in the right places."

"Well," Rush said, with enough satisfaction in his voice to let David know he'd been had, "you'd better come along and make sure we're okay then, right?"

David almost asked if Emmy had put him up to it-- she was rather endearingly adamant about keeping him from _overworking_, as she put it-- but kept his silence in the end. Rush was just as bad as she, after all. He never actually needed the encouragement.

"Fine," David said. "Let me fetch my gear."

***

It wasn't that he didn't want to admit he was wrong. He could handle that sort of thing, it didn't bother him. Much. It was just that Dave was wearing that long-suffering look, not really an _I-told-you-so_ but close, and really, how was he to know that roseflies had a three-month breeding cycle?

At least Irina seemed amused by the whole thing, but then, he'd always known his sister was a little bit insane.

"Good," Rush heard Emmy say, while he pushed back another gleaming stinger. "Keep your feet a little wider, don't let yourself be put off balance."

"Right," Irina's voice replied, a little breathless but, Rush was grateful to note, not like she was in pain or anything. Not that he was too worried, with her tucked into the rocks behind them and with Emmy there to give her a real live sparring lesson with the few 'flies that slipped through. It was good training for her. Didn't _quite_ stop him from wanting to throw her over his shoulder and run them all the way back to Athlum, though.

"Are you sure you don't want me to use the Gae Bolg?" Dave asked, sounding wryly amused. Amused was good, because that meant that he wasn't mad or anything about how their trip had turned out. Probably also meant that he wasn't serious, but just in case--

"No," Rush said firmly. It wasn't just that woman down in Virtus who had mentioned Dave's dad, after all. "There's not that many of them left." _I hope_, he added mentally, wincing as a Raptor came into sight around a far outcropping, scenting the air and starting to swing their way.

Taking a deep breath, Rush shook out his arms and bumped shoulders with Dave before bracing for the charge.

***

Irina was simply standing in front of the Liafort, watching the shifting colours and smiling ever so slightly. There was a distance in her eyes, as if she were looking at something none of the rest of them could see-- which was, as David knew, a distinct possibility.

It was a strange thought that she had the potential to be such a powerful figure. Marion's Blessing was a rumour, a legend, and yet here was one young girl who could hold the heart of a Remnant and turn it to her will. And by some chance, she was staying in his city. If someone had told him a year ago that such a thing would happen, he might have laughed in their face.

Still, it raised some questions, some possibilities. Even without the Valeria Heart, Athlum was not without its strength. It still had the Gae Bolg. It had the blades of his Generals and the soldiers that followed them. And now it had Rush and his mysterious Talisman, and the abilities of his family. If they were to make a push, now, for Celapaleis--

"Awesome! Thanks, I've been looking for one of these."

David blinked, thoughts scattered by the outcry. He turned until his eyes found Rush leaning down to look at something, close by that digging creature of his. The two of them were rooting through the grass, turning over several small, indistinguishable items.

David blinked again as he found himself hopelessly distracted by the sight of a bent-over Rush. Surely he had been thinking something important, just then, but--

Well. It could wait.

Rush was laughing, and David couldn't help but smile along. He met Emmy's eyes with only a twinge of ache at their near-familiarity, and found her smiling as well. Irina, coming up between them, laughed outright as the little creature wriggled with delight and ran off in search of something else.

Rush came up close beside him as they began their preparations to depart, his shoulders relaxed, his hands in his pockets. He stepped in close and simply stayed there, watching David out of the corners of his eyes, and David was still smiling as he watched back.

***

When they finally made it back to the city, Rush was tired and sore and feeling desperately in need of a bath, and from the looks on the others' faces he wasn't alone in that. Even with transport part of the way, where the roads allowed, it had been a lot of walking and a lot of fighting on top of that, and Rush at least had been carrying extra weight on the trip back. Which-- okay, yeah, it had been his own choice to carry it, but he couldn't just leave perfectly good components lying there after all of that. They'd _earned_ those insecta feathers.

He'd thought that maybe he'd wait to process them, though-- that was, until they came through the gates and Dave gave him a look. One that said _you'd better be taking those things right over to the market and not think about leaving them in my castle until they start to go off, like last time_. Which meant that Rush sighed and waved to his sister while he veered off down the stairs that would take him to Noyce's.

Monsters aside, it really hadn't been a bad day. It'd been good to get out for a while, definitely good for Dave to get away from it all. It wasn't healthy for a person to be cooped up inside all the time, and oh man, he was starting to sound like his mother. Still-- after you were done, it was good to come home again, too.

The thought made Rush pause mid-step, and then he shook his head at himself and walked on. Even a few months ago, _home_ would have meant Eulam, but the island was starting to seem like a long time ago, while Athlum was a friendly smile at the pub, afternoons in the garden, window seats in the library. Soft sheets and a thick mattress and stone walls that meant getting to make as much noise with Dave as they wanted without worrying about the looks they'd get for it the next morning. Not that Emmy wouldn't give them looks, anyway, but she usually seemed more amused than scandalized. She hadn't been around when it was just tent canvas and open air, like the others had.

Rush still didn't think Torgal had quite forgiven him for that first time.

He went straight for the baths when he finally made it up to the castle, relaxing back into the water with a sigh. Just another minute to soak, then he'd see about scrubbing the fly juice out from under his fingernails. Just one more minute. Really.

The sound of the door opening was followed by a low laugh. "How did I know I'd find you here?"

Rush smiled, not opening his eyes. "I'm predictable? Or you're just that good."

Another laugh. "Or because this was the first place I went, as well," Dave said, ruthlessly fair as always.

Rush had the sense of someone settling nearby, and a hand just touching his hairline. He hummed softly as the touch worked its way back across his scalp, sharper when something soft and warm and suspiciously like Dave's mouth pressed against his lips--

Only to draw back just as quickly, accompanied by a faint sound of distress.

"Ngh?" Rush said in protest.

"You have part of a wing stuck in your hair," Dave said calmly, extracting his fingers.

"What?" Rush opened his eyes, sitting up. "Eugh!"

Dave, traitor that he was, stood up and started for the door. "Let's continue this after you've finished bathing, shall we?"

"What-- Dave! Wait!"

***

_And after-- after, curled into the warmth of another body, leaning into a long, lazy kiss-- after, he thought about monsters and battle, about the inevitable politics and about those he loved most. About the things that had happened, unexpected as they had been, and about all that was still before him._

He thought about it and then he set it aside, letting that kiss chase him into dreams.


End file.
